neutral forward and reverse out of sync with throttle on 95 omc cobra

[anthonysjo]

Hello all. I have a 95 5.8 omc cobra which is the sx drive I believe. I just got the boat all back together after some stringer, floor and interior replacement. Overall the boat turned out really nice and after my first trip to the lake I am noticing some shifting issues. Everything shifts smoothly but it seems that it wants to shift in reverse sometimes when coming back quickly out of forward. Additionally it does not want to shift into forward until right before or simultaneously when the throttle starts to rev up, shifter already in forward position. I can manage around it but it is, one a pain and two dangerous when docking as I have to react slowly or I end up in reverse or gunning it forward.

I have read quite a bit but most of the issues seem to be more on stalling, grinding, or hard shifting. I even looked at the Hastings article but that looks like it applies up to 91. I am wondering if I just need a few turns at the lower unit where it connects to the shift lever since the lower unit was off last year or if I need a full adjustment check from scratch. Sorry if the question is redundant but I don't want to do the full procedure, still not clear on how to do that for a 95 cobra, if it is an easy fix.

Thanks for the help and please let me know if I need to provide more information.

 

[Sparkinator]

Re: neutral forward and reverse out of sync with throttle on 95 omc cobra

I've got a 95 omc sx 5.0 and it is the same drive. It is actually a dual partnership drive built by both omc and volvo penta. The Hastings adjustment doesn't apply to our drives.

I did some adjustments on the shift linkage inside the drive cover, but it didn't help much. I replaced the shift cable and it fixed the problem. My shift cable was original, and worked smoothly, but it was definitely the problem, because the new one has worked flawlessly for the last couple of years.

Mine had the manufacture date stamped in the cable. If yours is the original cable, you might have to replace it.

I was worried with the hard shifting, I would damage the drive before I figured out what the problem was, so I went with the quick fix of a new cable.

 

[anthonysjo]

Re: neutral forward and reverse out of sync with throttle on 95 omc cobra

Should I try adjusting at the lower unit to see if something happened during the install or is it just better to hit up a new cable? If there are some adjustments I can try before swapping the cable what are they?

My logic would tell me to start at the lower unit and try a couple turns there but I really don't want to screw anything up after just getting this thing all together.

Thanks!

 

[Sparkinator]

Re: neutral forward and reverse out of sync with throttle on 95 omc cobra

I'm attaching the 3 pages of the service manual that deal with shift/throttle adjustments.

Thanks again to the late DonS for giving me access to these manuals a few years ago.



I hope these images are readable, but they don't look to be. I'll PM you and can email you the proceedure straight from the owners manual.

 

[anthonysjo]

Re: neutral forward and reverse out of sync with throttle on 95 omc cobra

I played a bit with the shift cable at the upper gear housing and after putting the shifter in neutral I removed the cotter pin, washer, and the barrel and it appeared to be adjusted out too far. I made sure the drive was in the center of neutral on the upper gear housing and then adjust the barrel to easily slide in, approx. 6 turns. It appears to be shifting fine now as I tested it several times in R-N-R. I will test it this weekend and post my findings. Maybe it got changes when the drive was off last fall.....